Borderline
by Vertical Orbit
Summary: Madness; he was on the brink of losing control. She was gone for a reason, and they weren't going to stop until they found her.  RikuSora


**Author's Note:** So, this kinda just… happened. I sat down a few nights ago and this spilled out from under my finger tips. I'm still not entirely sure where it came from. However, I'm still working out the kinks to this story, so I'm not sure where this is headed. But it's sure to be one hell of a ride. And, yes, I'm still working on Emotions at War chapter 3. Look for that coming up soon.

So, if you like this, please leave me a review. I've read over this for a few days now, so hopefully it's almost polished. Please give me any suggestions or corrections, or any other help.

I don't own anything associated with Kingdom Hearts.

**X-X-X-X-X**

It wasn't like him. He never did this, never quite understood why someone would want to. But there he stood with the gun in his hand and finger on the trigger. Pointing it at some guy behind a counter who was just doing his job. He didn't want to pull the trigger, he swore that he wouldn't. He just wanted what he came for.

"I know you have it." He said, barely whispering the words.

The man was shaking, hands in the air as he backed away from the counter. "I don't know what you're talking about, kid."

"Don't call me kid. And I know you have it."

"Look, I-"

"Give it to me!"

His screaming caused the man to cover his head and duck down. He kicked a magazine rack with his heel, knocking it down and scattering it across the tiled floor. He was screaming more now, demanding what he came for. The guy behind the counter was rustling around, he knew that he was trying to find a weapon. He all but lurched over the counter, threatened him to stop.

"It's back there, give it to me now!"

"_Sora, let it go."_ He heard Riku say through his earpiece.

"No, I know this fucker has it."

"_The cops are coming, we have to go. Now."_

"But—"

"_I'm not about to lose you to some goddamn cops, get the fuck out of there NOW."_

"Fine."Sora bit out through clenched teeth, kicking another display on the way out of the gas station. It was raining that night, and as Sora slid the gun back into its holster under a giant black hoodie, he took off for the alleys. He could hear the sirens faintly in the distance, heard another set of footsteps catch up from behind him and match his pace. Riku was there, and they were running. Running away from the madness they had slipped into some years ago, when she was there, and that's all that mattered.

There was more to the story than her disappearance. She was gone for a reason, a purpose. And Sora wasn't going to stop until he found out why.

**Prologue: **_Picture Perfect_

Red hair and warm skin. How soft her hands felt when she wrapped her tiny fingers around his forearm, dragged him down to the pier to stare at the lake. The little things no one appreciates. But Sora knows, and Sora loves the moments they share together. One of his best friends. She knows everything, and Sora treats her with all the respect in the world. They laugh together, and when she's upset, Sora gives her a shoulder to cry on.

Riku is there too, and he pats her on the back and says that he'll kick whoever made her cry to the next world. They sit on the pier together eating ice cream and talking about that new movie that came out last week. They catch the tram to the outer parts of the city and walk around the older buildings and take pictures. They take pictures on the pier, at the park, in the burger joints and ice cream parlors.

She looks pretty in pictures.

On this day he had his camera, as was the usual. Riku wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her tight against him and they smiled for Sora. She was laughing, such a cute laugh.

"Hey, Kairi."Sora said, still holding his camera up to his face. "Stand over there in front of that shop."

It was a comic book shop, still in business and lively as ever. There were cardboard cutouts of Captain America holding his shield out with that smirk on his face and of Iron Man standing in his typical heroic pose. Kairi positioned herself outside the window between the two, gesturing out with her arms as if she couldn't decide between them. _Flash_. She laughed again.

"Come on," she said, bouncing to the door. "Let's look around!"

She made her way over to a stand of older comics, digging around for the collectables that no one looks through anymore. _Flash._ She moved on to the action figures, picked one up and made kissing faces towards it. _Flash._

Sora took more pictures of her and Riku. Riku was particularly interesting in the shop as he ogled collector's editions of Marvel comics. His favorite. He picked one up of Scarlet Witch on the cover, his favorite anti-hero, and Sora caught the sparkle in Riku's eye. _Flash_.

"Sora…" He whined when he heard the ticking of Sora's camera, turned to face him with an eyebrow raised. "Why don't you put that down and look around for a while?"

"Because…" Sora grew silent, but put the camera in his pocket at Riku's request.

"Because? Because why?"

"I don't want to forget…"

"Hey, look at this!" Kairi shouted from a back room of the store. When they found her, she was holding three keychains up that looked like shells sewn together to make stars. "They're thalassa shells, and look," She separated them out, handing a blue one to Sora and a green one to Riku, keeping the pink one for herself. "One for each of us."

"Hey, cool. We should definitely get these."

"What, it's girly." Riku scrunched up his nose at the keychain, and Sora gave him a gentle punch in the arm.

"But if we have them, we'll remember each other whenever we look at them. It'll be something we'll never forget." Sora clutched his keychain tight to his chest, his gaze cast downwards. He felt Riku put a hand on his shoulder.

"Why are you so worried about that?"

"It's nothing."

That was a lie, but Sora didn't want to explain it. He was scared. But he couldn't be scared in front of her. Kairi needed them to be strong, not to be afraid of what they couldn't understand. He shrugged it off, gave them both a cheesy grin. "Come on, let's go."

Sora held on to his keychain with all his might. It bonded them together, those shells. He couldn't figure out why, but it held an importance to him. He couldn't shrug off that feeling. Maybe the other two had felt it too, but kept it inside like he was now.

The picture he missed that day was when Kairi paused a few steps behind them, keychain in her hand and staring down at it with a hurting gaze. She bit her lip, holding back the emotions riding through her. When Sora turned to face her, she was smiling again, and Sora took the picture. He would later look at that picture and realize her smile had been feigned.

* * *

><p>They didn't see her the next day.<p>

Sora and Riku always met her in the library before school in the mornings. When she didn't show, the two boys parted ways and went to class. They always sat together at lunch, but when she wasn't there either, Riku sent her a text message.

No response came.

"Is she sick?"

Riku scoffed, placing his phone down roughly on the lunch table. "She would've texted us earlier if she was sick."

"But what if she's deathly sick?"

"She's not deathly sick, Sora."

"But Riku—"

"Shut up."

Lunch time passed in silence. By fifth period, Riku had texted him a short message. _Meet me after school by the main entrance._

The final bell of the day rang and all the students filed out of the building to catch buses or to get their cars and go home. Riku was leaning against one of the pillars outside, messenger bag on his shoulder and phone in his hand. He dialed a number as Sora approached, told him that he was calling Kairi's home. He put it on speaker so Sora could hear.

"_Hello?" _A feminine voice answered. Both boys recognized it as Kairi's mom.

"Is Kairi home?"

"_No, she left for school this morning and should be home soon. Is this Riku?"_

Sora's eyes widened and looked at Riku, who held a similar expression. Sora felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach, felt like he was going to had left but never made it? It was unlike her to skip, her classes were too important to her.

"_Hello? Riku?"_

"Kairi wasn't at school today, ma'am."Riku finally said. He was biting his lip, he was nervous.

"…_what?She wasn't at school today? No, I watched her walk to the bus stop this morning."_

"She didn't respond to any of my texts," He continued, running his free hand through his silver locks and grabbing a handful, eyes closed and body shaking.

"_Is Sora with you? I'm going to call her cell, why don't you boys head on over. I'll give you a call if I get a hold of her."_ And her mom hung up, but Riku didn't do anything but stare at the blank screen of his phone.

Sora grabbed him, started dragging him to the bus stop. "Come on, we gotta go."

When the bus finally arrived and they filed on, Sora pulled out his camera. Picture after picture of her, and she was laughing and smiling. Pictures of the three of them together, picture of just him and her, pictures of her with Riku.

In one photo it was just Kairi. She was staring off into the distance, a blue popsicle in hand. She was more focused on what was happening just outside of the camera's range. The popsicle had started to melt and drip all over her hand. In the next picture was her face after realizing the popsicle had melted. And the next after that was Riku handing her a napkin and laughing at her. Sora remembered that Riku got punched for laughing. It was for memories like that, that was the reason he took pictures.

Riku watched over his shoulder, a hand resting on Sora's thigh. Sora felt how clammy Riku's hands were through his shorts, felt how shaky he was. Sora took deep breaths. Kairi was ok, she was just skipping. Maybe she lost her phone and was headed home now. Maybe there was nothing to be worried about.

Maybe didn't cut it.

The bus stop was a few blocks away from Kairi's house, and the boys all but charged off of the bus and down the street. The house was tucked back in to a cul-de-sac in a ritzy neighborhood. Every house had the same trash can and the same mailbox, and each driveway had an equally ritzy car to match.

Riku had always been faster than Sora, and made it to the doorstep before him. He opened the door instead of knocking, kicked his shoes off and ran to find Kairi's mom. Sora was just a few seconds behind him.

Kairi's mom was beautiful for her age. Her hair had a few strands of gray but was as red as Kairi's even still. She was sitting on the couch in their living room, her husband by her side and holding her hand. She looked up when she heard the door to their house slam open.

"Oh boys," she said, her voice shaky and low. Her face was streaked with tears.

"We've called the police. They can't do a search until it's been 24 hours. We're gonna call first thing tomorrow morning and file the report." Her dad said, lightly squeezing his wife's hands as she started sobbing again.

Both Sora and Riku were frozen in place. They stayed with her parents for a couple of hours after that, taking turns calling her. Eventually, Kairi's mom asked them to leave, and when Sora and Riku went to their homes that night, neither boy could sleep.

Sora got up halfway through the night and picked up his cell phone. No missed calls or texts. He dialed Kairi's number, listened to it ring until it clicked over to voicemail. Her voice recording almost set off tears.

_Hi, this is Kairi! I'm currently away from my phone, please leave me a message and I will get back to you! Thanks!_

_Beeeeeeep._

"K-Kairi? If you're there, and I hope to god you are. Please call us back. We…" he paused, unsure of what to say next. "We miss your smile, Kairi. Please be ok. Please…"

He hung up and rummaged through his messenger bag. His fingers felt the cool and smooth texture of sea shells, and pulled the keychain out. He held it tight against him until he finally fell asleep.

* * *

><p>In the morning, Sora woke up to a phone call. It startled him awake, and for a moment he hoped it was Kairi. He frowned when he saw it wasn't her, but Riku instead.<p>

"H-Hello?" His voice hadn't quite come back to him yet, groggy from just waking up.

"_Meet me on the corner of seventh and walnut in half an hour. We'll go to Kairi's together."_

Sora wasn't a morning person, but on this day he was awake and ready in less than fifteen minutes. His Saturdays were usually spent sleeping in and playing video games until Riku and Kairi dragged him out of his house.

Kairi…

His mother questioned him on his way out the door. Why are you up so early? Where are you going? Oh, you're hanging out with your friends? It's Saturday, you usually sleep in. But Sora answered each question and responded as calmly as he could. He didn't want to worry her, not yet. Kairi was out there, she had to be.

He met Riku at the bus stop and the two boys didn't speak until they reached Kairi's house. Two police cars were parked outside, and the parents told the cops to let them in and sit them down.

"When was the last time you saw Kairi?" Officer Grant asked, notepad and pen in hand.

"Thursday." Both boys said at the same time, casting their gaze at each other.

Riku spoke up with details first. "We were out at the pier, and then we walked a few blocks to the comic book store after school."

"Yeah," Sora continued. "And when we were done there, the three of us rode the bus to her stop at the beginning of this neighborhood."

The other officer, Thompson, shifted his posture from one side of his body to the other, arms crossed. "Did you see any suspicious persons while you were out on Thursday?"

"No, sir." Riku shook his head.

Kairi's mom filled them in on a typical morning, what the bus route was and where the stop was located in their neighborhood. While she was describing, Sora pulled out his camera and began to search through the pictures from Thursday.

There was a picture of Kairi on the pier, the beach and city in the distance behind her. She was leaning forward and smiling. But there was something off, in the background. A figure in all black with a burst of fire red atop its head. Sora zoomed in on the figure, and the person had been looking right at them when the picture was shot. Coincidentally, maybe. However…

He switched to another shot from Thursday, the one in front of the comic book store window. He looked in the reflection for that same figure. He wasn't in the first shot, but in the next shot the figure was there, he had been behind him and Riku, but this time he was close enough that Sora could see a better picture of him. Green eyes lined with thick eyeliner, purple diamond tattoos right under his eyes, fire red hair that spiked back behind him, black jacket and dark jeans.

There was no coincidence.

Maybe there was more evidence in earlier pictures.

He quickly switched back to pictures he had taken over the last week. Sora spotted the red headed mystery man in about every other picture of Kairi. Sometimes he was closer, sometimes he was farther away. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't very good at hiding the fact that he was there. Maybe it was because it wasn't a secret.

There was one shot in particular from the week before in the burger joint downtown. Kairi and Riku had been sitting opposite him, and he had taken a picture of them smiling together. And in the seat behind them with his back to the camera was the mystery man, the hair was quite obvious.

Sora kept looking at pictures further back. This man had been following them, Kairi, for a while.

"Excuse me, officers?"

They were on their way out the door when Sora spoke, but they stopped and looked at him, heads cocked to side in question. "Yes, son?" Grant said, taking a few steps closer.

"I have something I need to show you."

* * *

><p>The search for Kairi lasted a full month before it was called off. Every day Riku and Sora walked to the pier and sat there until the sun set for the evening and they had to go home. They helped search teams walk through the city looking for any clues about her disappearance. The police watched surveillance camera recordings from that Friday morning, but she hadn't been on the school bus and hadn't walked into view of any cameras in her neighborhood. They checked popular hangouts to see if the owners had seen her. They checked with kids at school.<p>

They asked about the man with red hair. No one could recall having seen a man with facial tattoos. He didn't show up on the recordings, either. It was as if he didn't exist at all, because Sora had caught him in pictures from all of these places, yet no one could figure out where he had come from. It's as if he was wiped clean from it all.

When the search was called, Sora continued to take pictures. He continued to ask questions. But instead of taking pictures of Riku, or anyone, he took pictures of empty space. Just to see if maybe he could find the red head in his shot.

He called her cell phone every day. _Hi, this is Kairi! I'm currently—_he usually stopped it there, it hurt to hear her voice. But sometimes he left a voicemail, just in case she was alive still and found her phone.

A few months of doing this, Riku finally confronted him about it. Told him to stop. Told him it wasn't going to bring her back.

And Sora collapsed into his arms and cried that day, because Kairi was gone, and he was helpless. Riku just held onto him, whispered that it was going to be ok. If she was still out there, and maybe she still was, that they would find her. Even if their lives depended on it. They both knew that her light was there, even if it was dimmer than usual.

She was worth saving, she was out there, and they would find her.


End file.
